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15
Sep 10

What she really misses is your soul.

An Interview with Chun Shim Nim, the first Dahn Yoga pioneer in the Greater Boston area.

Chun Shim Nim is a master healer, workshop trainer and mentor to many of the Boston area Dahn Yoga instructors

Chun Shim Nim, who started the first Dahn Yoga Center's in Boston, with her latest group of Shim Sung graduates

Chun Shim Nim (center, with pink scarf) pioneered the first Dahn Yoga Centers in the Boston area in the late 1990's. She is pictured here with Shim Sung graduates from Honor's Haven Resort and Spa, where she currently works.

and trainers. She came to the area in 1996 and was one of the first group of instructors who introduced Dahn Yoga to the US. At that time, there were no Dahn Yoga Centers. Now, fourteen years later, there are four centers, and many off-site classes or franchise centers run by members that started in Boston, including in such far-off places such as Sweden and Israel.

In this interview, David Sholmenson (who is using his spiritual name of Chun Yool- CY), asks Chun Shim nim about her arrival here, what she accomplished and her dreams for the future.

Chun Yool (CY): Can you tell us about your journey from Korea to the USA and how what happened when you got here?

Chun Shim (CS): Like everybody else, after living and searching for something uncertain, but at the same time certain, for over thirty years, I met Dahn Yoga and the Shim Sung workshop. (In Korea) During the workshop a voice of someone in my heart shouted out “live your Soul!”, which I hadn’t experienced in books or lectures before. Since then, I became an example of hope, because if, even I who was not special at all, could feel this voice of my soul, then I believed everybody could do it. I became an instructor, and after awhile, the Dahn Company headquarters asked me and my husband (who was also an instructor) if and where we wanted to go abroad to teach because of our prior experience travelling in Europe. We decided to come to the USA because energetically this country has the hugest impact on the world. If something healthy happens in this country, it will influence all other countries.

When I really trusted the voice in my heart without fear and doubt, it took care of everything we needed to get to the USA successfully. What happened when I got here? I think it is what ET experienced when he came to the earth: cultural shock, making friends, connection, learning, understanding, healing flowers and human’s 3 bodies, longing for the Souls. A member asked me long ago “Don’t you miss your family and country?” –I answered, “What I really miss is your Soul.”

CY: Tell us how you went from teaching from your living room in a small apartment in Somerville, MA to opening 10 centers in the New England region.

CSN: The first place was a one bed room apartment in Arlington. If you want me to talk about the whole process, I can write several books about it. Awakening experiences everyday! Anyway the start was $400, a deposit for rent. We had to create everything from nothing. But everything was here already. Souls in everybody! When we made just one focus, everything just happened, neither too much nor less : “Attraction of Mind!” Then my husband moved to the main office of Dahn Yoga after 3 1/2 months. Since then I have lived for/with the voice, one vision, help everybody live their Soul. It has been total experience of creation, “visualization of invisible power”. People came when it was meant, material came when needed, places showed up when needed. Some people left and some people came like tides when I held just one life guard within, my Soul’s wish. What I did was/is just one thing, keeping my Soul’s wish, ‘Soul’ which is beyond everything, nationality, gender, age, belief etc.

CY: What is your dream for the USA and all the world?

CSN: When Dahn Yoga came here, the beginning was like when a little boy found the ET in the closet in the darkness. So different. But soon they become friends. My wish is to see that the boy and ET fly together on a bike in the huge full moon night. I believe Shim Sung workshop is a great tool for this vision.

(Editor’s note: In February of 2009, Chun Shim Nim left the Boston area  twelve plus years after arriving.   She travelled and worked in various parts of the country eventually making her way to the Honor’s Haven Resort and Spa in Ellenville, NY to manage the Wellness Department there. )

CY: Now that you are at Honors Haven, what is your vision for the Wellness team? What would you like Honors Haven to become and represent to the world?

CSN: my vision for the wellness team is: 1. To create one mind and one vision in Honors Haven. 2. To grow the True Self (Shim Sung) workshop at Honors Haven. The True Self workshop means finding your true self, finding your true strength, self healing and more. By that I mean that so many people will come here to join the True Self Workshop that we have to make a waiting list 3. Invite similar-minded people (like Deepak Chopra, Caroline Myss, etc) to Honor’s Haven and have them give lectures, workshops, etc, be a partner with Yoga Journal, and be part of a big healing community. 4. Help make Ellenville to make it “Wellenville” through the growth of Honor’s Haven. 5. Become a healing chakra for the world, meaning that people come here to learn and experience how to become ‘hong ik in gan’ and then go out and do good things. (Hong ik in gan means people who can create peace within themsevles and then live to benefit all around them.)

For more information about Honor’s Haven and the Wellness Center, please visit: http://www.honorshaven.com and click on the ‘Wellness’ Tab.

Brookline Dahn Yoga Instructor David SholmensonChun Yool, or David Sholmenson, is a Dahn Healer School graduate and instructor at the Brookline Dahn Yoga Center. He has also travelled all over Northeast of the US and even to Switzerland with Chun Shim nim as a music trainer for the True Self workshop.

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10
Sep 10

How did you do it?

Barbara Maffeo from Melrose, MA, is an exemplary person on many levels.  She started Dahn Yoga while suffering from Fibromyalgia,  even needing help getting off the floor at the end of class (as she will share in the video).

With determination, however, she kept going to class and eventually improved her condition significantly.  As soon as she started to feel improvements, she started sharing with others.  In this video, Dahn TV director Edwin Kim interviews Barbara how and why she went from barely making it through a class to creating one of the most successful Dahn Yoga outreach programs in Massachusetts at her workplace, the Red Cross.


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26
Aug 10

Dahn Yoga in the dental chair? Yes!

Dahn Yoga in the dentist chair? Maxine is a Dahn Yoga practitioner who uses Brain Wave Vibration and other exercises to help her patients relax before undergoing dental work at Johnson Dental in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

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16
Aug 10

Be Inspired. Introducing Celia Cooper Lombardi

Celia shines bright whenever she comes to the Dahn Yoga center

Celia is a shining star whenever she walks in to the center

It is the night of the Level up Evaluation Test at the Andover Dahn Center. Members are testing their limits to make the grade on specific postures and stretches.  It comes time for the “Sleeping Tiger” test, a strong holding posture for strengthening the lower back and abdomen.  As the clock tics on legs and arms begin to drop as members release their posture to take a rest. 

But amidst the sea of dropping arms and legs one set remains still.  The other members continue to move through the remainder of the test. Some of them even complete it and head for the door. All the while one set of arms and legs remain still.

Deep in concentration, 83 year old Celia Cooper Lombardi holds her ground.  “Ok Celia healer nim, you can drop down now”.  “What’s that?!”, she shouts out as she reaches to turn up her hearing aid. “Lower your legs!” “Oh, sure, ok”. She replies with ease and comfortably releases the posture.

Celia has been practicing Dahn Yoga for 3 years now. In April of 2007 she stumbled across a Dahn Yoga Instrutor in a nearby grocery store. One thing led to another and she tried her first class.

“I knew I needed to do something but I thought I was too old. When I talked to the instructor they said age is not a problem so I decided to try the class. From Day 1 my mind felt brighter. I knew I would come back and that this is what I am supposed to do.”

Celia was born in 1927 in Monmouthshire, England and came to the US in 1946.  She has dedicated her life to serving others (both people and animals alike!). Celia retired as a social worker in 1991. From there she became a Reiki Master and began to become involved in different types of Holistic Healing practices which eventually led her to Dahn Yoga.

Despite her positive mindset Celia’s journey with health has not been an easy one. However, her determination always prevails.  About 30 years ago she completely healed her lower back through simply breathing! Her back was weak and poorly aligned which caused it to go out incessantly,  leaving her in a hunch.  After receiving advice from a trusted friend Celia attempted one last time to heal her pain.   For 1 hour everyday over the course of 1 full year, she practiced a breathing meditation that involves breathing into the lower back.  Slowly but surely, her lower back completely healed.

Today her main health struggle is Osteoarthritis.  When asked how she continues to stay in high spirits despite physical limitations Celia answered like this

I never think there is anything I can’t do. I always feel everything is possible. I never considered myself as old or sick.  And, when I  do get sick I  know inside that soon I will get better.

Celia’s  spirit is truly an inspiration.  She attends classes 3x’s a week and always arrives on time with a bright smile and arms wide open for a warm hug.  Dressed neatly in

Celia and Dahn Center Manager Marielle Cristofi

Celia and Dahn Center Manager Marielle Cristofi

her class uniform she devotes the utmost sincerity to her practice.  Every Wednesday she comes to class 30 minutes early for her home exercise check up. After class she quickly scoops up the tea cups to wash them for the next session. On some occasions you’ll even find her teaching a new member about the warm up exercises or even leading the class in an early warm up.

Celia will never stop growing and developing herself. She attended the Brain Management Consultant Training in November of 2009. She looks forward to taking her renewal test this Fall with hopes to teach someday at an outreach location for the elderly.  Every Tuesday Celia volunteers for the MSPCA at the Nevins Farm in Metheun, MA where she shares her love with the animals there.

At 83 years old Celia’s spirit is still young and bright.  Her positive outlook on life has helped her overcome many obstacles.  I hope we can all remember the words that keep her going day in and day out…

“I never think there is anything I can’t do. I always feel everything is possible. I never considered myself as old or sick.”

It’s that simple.

~Marielle Cristofi

Marielle Cristofi is the center manager at the Dahn Yoga and Healing Center in Andover, MA.

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9
Aug 10

Amazing Women in Our Midst!

Caroline Grabner from the Dahn Yoga Center in Bethesda, MD shares her story with Dahn TV about overcoming cancer, then helping others through the journey as a volunteer instructor.

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6
Aug 10

Off the Mat. A new series on Dahn TV.

In ‘Off the Mat’, Dahn TV covers stories of Dahn Yoga practitioners pursuing training out of the classroom. We take a trip to Korea in this first episode, with folks from all over the country.


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2
Aug 10

If not me, then who, if not now, then when? (Part II)

Dahn Yoga instructor Mike and Beth Houlihan in front of Roots to Wings Yoga Center

Mike & Beth in front of Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Center

Last week in Part I ‘Pre-yoga Daze’, Mike

Houlihan shared the beginning of the journey that lead him and his wife to take over management of the highly successful ‘Roots to Wings’ Yoga Studio, a hybrid Hatha and Dahn Yoga studio, where over 130 graduated from the Shim Sung ‘Finding True Self’ Workshop in two years.  

At the end of part I, Mike had just started taking Yoga Classes at Roots to Wings.

Around the time that I was discovering yoga for the first time, Wendy Hall, owner and teacher at Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Center was discovering Dahn Yoga for the first time.  She had recently taken the Shim Sung (Finding True Self) workshop offered by Dahn Yoga, and immediately felt the practice offered her the next step in her growth.  She set about practicing and taking private sessions with Chun Shim Park, a Dahn Yoga trainer, and was soon experimenting how to incorporate the ‘energy body’ practices she was learning into her Hatha Yoga classes.  She started having us do Sleeping Tiger for about 5 minutes at the end of some classes and gradually, I began to feel energy in my Dahn Jon.  I started practicing harder.  Wendy also encouraged others to take the Shim Sung workshop and Beth, my wife, travelled to Boston to participate.  She immediately started bugging me to go.  I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about, but was loving yoga and if I could dedicate two days to doing it that’d be fine.  With this mind, I eventually signed up.   Fortunately, by the time I had an opportunity to go, Shim Sung actually came to Roots to Wings, thanks to the hard work of Wendy and Chun Shim nim. (nim is a term of respect in Korean, often used at the end of a person’s name/title).

By the time Shim Sung rolled around, I was feeling pretty healthy.  I’d lost about 20 pounds, was calmer some of the time, and could see the benefits of regular yoga and energy practice.  However, I was still unprepared for Shim Sung.  I was unable to see the connection between my thoughts and my physical and spiritual bodies.  I didn’t appreciate the interconnection of the three bodies.  Shim Sung was like getting a new set of glasses to look at myself through.  I began to see more clearly who I was and how I’d been limiting myself.  I often tell people that I’d experienced the rapture of being alive on my wedding day and during the birth of our four children; a moment where time really stood still.  I experienced the rapture again in Shim Sung. However, the weekend also scared me, because I realized how sick my body really was.  At the end, I did not want it to be over.  I walked up to Chun Shim nim with a pleading look in my eyes, saying “Help!”  She compassionately pushed a couple of meridian points on me. ‘You need to heal’ she said.  Deep down inside, I knew she was right.  I needed more help. 

That was the beginning of the journey that brought me here, to this point in my life, ready to teach others in the same way that Wendy and Chun Shim nim taught me.  This journey has started, but hasn’t stopped yet.  I don’t have the words to describe how sincerely grateful I am to have had the opportunity to be guided by Chun Shim nim.  It has been the opportunity of many lifetimes.  She helped me save my life by helping me see in myself what is inside all of us and helped me develop the confidence to be who I truly am. 

Part III – Fruits of ‘Su Haeng’ Training, Family, and Future

Su Haeng means ‘training to recover your original spirit’.  Scores of private sessions and peak experiences later, across staffing multiple Shim Sungs, beyond many Dahn Yoga trainings- Master Healer School, Healing Chakra, Advanced Shim Sung, Tao Masters training, BMC School, and countless hours of practice with Wendy nim and Chun Shim nim, it comes down to this. In the last three and a half years:

  • I am lighter, but not just physically.  I have gone from 212 to 172 pounds (even though I never thought I could weigh less than 185 at 6 feet tall), but my lightness is different than that.
  • My mind is clearer almost all the time, extremely clear some of the time, and less clear very infrequently.
  • I am not constrained by upper and lower back pain like I was since my mid 20s. 
  • My perennial allergies have virtually disappeared. I used to wake up sneezing 30 plus times a night
  • My musical tastes have changed completely from hard rock/heavy metal to yoga and healing music.  I’ve also started to teach myself to play guitar.
  • I have begun to let go of attachments and have realized that I am not Mike the Chief Information Officer, Father, Husband, champion golfer, hockey player blah blah blah.  I am much more than that
  • I am calmer and more present with my wife, children, friends and co-workers.  Getting hooked on emotions is more an exception than the norm. 
  • I have changed the information I live my life by.  I don’t read the paper much.  I don’t watch the news.  I watch much less TV.  I spend my time with people who are healthy for me
  • I have re-learned what to eat, how to eat it, and when.  I am more conscious of what I put in my body.  I have not taken a pill of any kind in almost 4 years (with the exception of 1 course of antibiotics when I had lyme disease after a tick bite).  I have not used alcohol in almost 3 years.  I have not had refined sugar in 8 months.  I don’t drink coffee and I don’t smoke.  I do enjoy an occasional pizza and I do eat meat although I do not crave meat like I used to.
  • I understand that I am 100% responsible for everything that happens in my life and I accept full responsibility for that
  • I understand that I will continue to repeat lessons until I learn them.  I am not in control
  • I have realized that I am separate from nothing.  I trust CJKU.
  • I can feel my Dahn Jon (lower energy center) even when I am not doing Yeon Don (still postures to accumulate energy).  Not always, but more of the time
  • I have the confidence to heal myself and others
  • I understand that to better heal myself and others I must teach, share, and practice
  • I believe I can make a difference in the world.  I am making a difference in the world.  I am going to make a difference in the world because I am 100% responsible for doing so.
The teaching team at Roots to Wings

The teaching team at Roots to Wings, all trained in Dahn Yoga and Hatha Yoga

Wendy Hall, as the founder of Roots to Wings, created the amazing energy field that is here with her own love, compassion, will and determination to make a better world.  She brought Dahn Yoga to us and to Roots to Wings.  Roots to Wings is a very special place.  What has happened here is a testament that Hong ik (‘living in a way that widely benefits all’) is alive and well in America.  Wendy Hall’s, now Wendy Hall Sabumnim ‘s,(a dahn yoga master instructor)  success at incorporating Dahn Yoga principles with her already successful yoga and healing studio brought her an invite to manage CGI Holistic Fitness in Closter, NJ.   She pursued this for her growth and for her vision of world peace, and her absence required us to grow to fill her spot.

My main lesson from BMC (Brain Management Consultant) training was that believing something and living something are two different things.  To me the essence of Dahn Yoga is the practice of living consciously.  All the great wisdom traditions tell us this and we get it intellectually.  Dahn Yoga training has helped me feel this in the fiber of my being.  It’s real and tangible.  I also believe there are many maps that can we can use to practice living consciously, but as Joseph Campbell said it is best not to confuse the map with the territory, and if you find a map that works, stick with it. 

While it was a very difficult decision to leave the corporate world and become a’ full-time’ earth citizen by operating a yoga and healing center, it is something I know I must do to make the most of this chance, this lifetime.  I decided to dive in with both feet because I believe in’ Hong Ik’, living beneficially for all, and the power of transformation.  If I can change, anybody can.  I feel that a life based on healing and helping others is a life well lived and the best lesson we can give our children.  The rest is up to Chun Ji Ki Un (Cosmic Energy), and I think I am in good hands.

Mike Houlihan operates Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Studio in Newburyport, MA, with his wife Beth.
For more information please visit  http://www.rootstowings.com.

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28
Jul 10

If not me, then who? If not now, then when? (Part I)

Author Mike Houlihan, and his wife Beth, teach Dahn Yoga at Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Center.

Mike and Beth Houlihan and their children, twins Conner and Griffin, and older girls Ashley and Emma in the Summer of 2010

Mike and Beth Houlihan are yoga practitioners and parents of four young children. Recently, Mike left a successful career as a Chief Information Officer of a start-up company to take over management, with Beth, of “Roots to Wings”, a successful yoga studio in Newburyport, MA that combines the teachings of Dahn Yoga, Brain Education, and Hatha Yoga.

Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Center was the first Hatha Yoga studio in the US to host Dahn Yoga’s Shim Sung Workshop in January of 2008. Since then, approximately eight Shim Sung workshops have been held with more than 150 people participating. Of these 150, approximately 20 people have taken Dahn Yoga’s Brain Management Consultant and other advanced trainings. Mike participated in the first Shim Sung at Roots to Wings, and is a BMC graduate. I was at that Shim Sung, and have witnessed the incredible journey that Mike and Beth have been on. I asked Mike to share his story for the Dahn Yoga Blog readers. Enjoy part 1 below!

~Genia Sullivan, editor, www.dahnyogama.com
During the last year, my wife Beth and I have drastically changed our lives to follow a calling to live and grow as Earth Citizens through taking over management of Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Center, founded by Wendy Hall. Together with two of our classmates who also graduated from Dahn Yoga’s Brain Management Consultant Course, we teach all the classes and take care of all management affairs. We host and staff three Shim Sung trainings each year, and keep up with our own training as well. We have four children ages 5, 5, 7, and 9 who practice yoga, soccer, and hockey. How do we do it all, you might ask?

To be honest, it is not easy. We’ve given up a lot of things we used to do like weekends away, having friends over for dinner, my own hockey and prime-time golf. We focus on doing the most important things really well. For example, we just got back from 7 nights on the beach in Maine living in a tent with all the kids. Taking over the helm at Roots to Wings has created some strain in our family, but we are a happier and healthier family for it. Practice helps. We are taking a leap of faith in ‘Chun Ji Ki Un’ that if we put our full energy into something we love to do the rest will be taken care of. Why? I look inside myself and see the results. I know how I have changed and how I have grown. I have experienced what can happen when we have the courage to let go, while also understanding it is a life-long process.

If not me, who? If not now, when?  This is our story, told from my perspective.

Part I – Pre-Yoga Daze

Mike, Ashley, and Emma Houlihan, approx 2007

Author Mike and his two older children in 2007

Somewhere in my early 40s, what I now understand as past memories, preconceptions, and worries about the future began to catch up with me. I generally considered myself to be relatively healthy and successful. I’d gone to college, grad school, had a great job, a house, two kids, and no financial worries. I played golf and hockey, skied, biked, rollerbladed and I was really good at drinking beer. My whole life, I had a nagging feeling that something was missing, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I longed for the simplicity of a sunny day with a sweatshirt on and work boots that I remembered from my early childhood, but couldn’t find it in any of my successes; having grown up without a dad, I was insecure and deep inside thought I wasn’t good enough. No matter how much I had or how low my golf score was it wasn’t good enough and I always had this nagging belief that something bad would happen to me at the most inopportune time to prevent me from achieving ultimate success.

My job required significant travel and I began to feel torn about not being around for my wife and two young girls. Living on airplanes and away from my family was profitable, but not fulfilling. I was dying. Around that time I also began to get more concerned about my health. I was always self conscious about my looks, but this was more than just an inner tube around my waist. I would get dizzy, headaches, heart palpitations, and get a fat tongue and mess-up my words from time to time. With each ache and pain I had, I’d run to the doctor to make sure I did not have cancer or a heart problem. The things I did to make me feel better created more stress. I was truly a misguided seeker, as Deepak Chopra would say.

My minister at my local church had been nagging me for a couple of years to meet with her, but I had always managed to escape doing it. I kind of knew where I needed to go; but I figured there’d be time for that down the road. I used to ask myself the question “What happens to people who know but don’t listen, don’t act?” Of course I was foolish enough to think I knew, but scared enough to know there was something out there that I still couldn’t put my finger on.

Author Mike Houlihan in his 'pre-yoga daze'

Author Mike Houlihan in his 'Pre-Yoga Daze'

Even before she asked to meet with me, I was immediately struck by Minister Nancy. Her blazing blue eyes seemed to look right through me as if she could see who I knew I really was. I felt she could also see my potential, and I was inspired by her sermons. I eventually gave in, and began meeting with her on a regular basis, and these meetings really were the start of the spiritual journey I began. She helped me experience that as we share deep truths about ourselves, we begin to access a part of ourselves that exists outside of space and time, and we begin to see things as they really are. It would take me a long time to learn that failure to see things as they really are is what causes suffering, and I am still learning that it is me who is doing it. While these practices were mostly temporal, they were tangible and I was starting to develop a stronger belief in my own personal transformation.

I became quite enamored with having peak spiritual experiences that were different and safer than other highs I’d sought through the course of my life. The problem was that I had not made any fundamental changes to how I was living my life. I still had a nagging feeling that I was running out of time and that something bad was going to happen. I still did not feel great physically, didn’t like the way I looked and was bored with how I was living my life. My wife Beth had started yoga at Roots to Wings Yoga Studio, a local Hatha Yoga Studio in our town, shortly after our twin boys were born. I began to notice she was calmer, stronger, and more focused; different somehow, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was getting tired of gingerly walking down stairs after hockey games, nursing groin pulls, and going from one ache and pain to the next so I figured I’d give yoga a try.

Within five minutes of my first class I said to myself “Yes, Home!” There was just something about lying on that mat and gasping for air that had a quieting effect on me. I didn’t have much respect for yoga when I first went, and didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I figured I’d take classes for a couple of weeks and would be in perfect shape again. I was so wrong about that it makes me shake my head even as I write this. Yoga tore me limb from limb for about the first six months of practice. I found it excruciating, but I loved it.

Come back on Monday for Part II: ‘Yoga Daze; Mike’s transformation through Shim Sung and decision to become a full time practitioner and yoga studio owner

Author Mike HoulihanMike Houlihan operates Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Studio in Newburyport, MA, with his wife Beth.
For more information please visit  http://www.rootstowings.com.

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24
Jul 10

A Two Minute Tip- Relieve your wrist pain

This week’s Two Minute Tip address is the first part of two short videos that will guide you how to release tension in your upper body joints.  If you have wrist pain, from sports, playing an instrument, or computer work, try this exercise once a day for relief.


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20
Jul 10

Mom was right, you are what you eat….

Now that you’re all grown up, you get to make your own rules now, right?  Well, it turns out that mom was right about food; you are what you eat.                                       A healthy diet includes a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables Food has the power to give you energy and health and conversely, a diet that is not so healthy will leave you sluggish and devoid of energy.  A healthy diet will do more for your body than you can feel immediately – it will keep your skin healthy and your hair shiny, and it will also keep you internal organs working well.  It will keep the pH balanced in your body and it will give your body the ability to heal itself.

Oxidative stress is a problem in our current society – there is so much stress and fast food that we are not taking good care of ourselves.  Oxidative stress can lead to the existence of free radicals in our bodies.  Free radicals lead to cell mutations and cell mutations can lead to many kinds of diseases, including cancer.

Ack!  How to get rid of these free radicals?  Make antioxidants a big part of your diet.  Don’t be put off by the big word; there are many foods that are high in antioxidants.  For example, vitamins A, C and E are antioxidants.  Increase your fruit and vegetable intake with dark colored berries, dark leafy greens, whole grains and nuts, and you will be increasing your antioxidant intake.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that you get 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s just not that easy to eat that many high-quality fruits and vegetables on a daily basis.  So, for my family, I choose to supplement our fruit and vegetable intake with a product called MonaVie.  There are 5 different formulas (including ones for joint health, heart health and immune health) and each one has 19 fruits in it.  With just 4oz a day, you receive the antioxidant and phytonutrient equivalent of 13 servings of fruits and vegetables.  Drinking it daily gives me the security of knowing that we’re all getting the nutrition we need.  And, my 6 year old hasn’t missed a day of school due to illness in the year and a half he’s been drinking MonaVie.  That’s enough of an endorsement for me!

Another benefit of MonaVie is that it helps my digestion, so it’s a great complement to my daily intestinal exercises.  Between my Dahn classes and my MonaVie, I’m staying healthy and helping my body be the best it can be.   See you in class!

Auther, Dawn McGee, and her family

The author, Dawn McGee, with her family

Dawn McGee takes classes regularly at the Dahn Arlington center in Massachusetts. Dahn Yoga is one component of her healthy lifestyle. She has been drinking MonaVie for over 2 years now and it improved her health so much that she has become a distributor for the company.  To learn more, go to www.theMVacai.com.

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